Payment of the congestion charge allows you to enter, drive around, and leave the charging zone as many times as you wish that day.

There are no tollbooths or barriers around the congestion charging zone and no physical tickets or passes. Instead, you pay to register your vehicle number plate on a database for your journeys within the charging zone.

Cameras read your registration number as you enter, drive within or leave the congestion charging zone and check it against the database. Once the vehicle number plate has been matched, showing that you have paid or do not have to pay the charge (because your vehicle is exempt or 100% discounted), the photographic image of your vehicle is automatically wiped off the database.

Following a final check at midnight the following day, the computer keeps the registration numbers of vehicles that should have paid but not done so. Transport for London then manually checks each recorded image and issues a Penalty Charge Notice of £120 to the registered keeper or hirer of all those vehicles. As with parking penalties, this is reduced to £60 for prompt payment within 14 days. Failure to pay the penalty charge within 28 days means the a Charge Certificate will be issued and the charge will increase by a further 50%.

If the charge isn't paid 14 days after the Charge Certificate is served then your case may be seen as an unpaid debt and you'll be served an Order for Recovery.

If this is still not paid after another 21 days then your case will be passed to a Bailiff for them to recover the cash. You'll be written to first, and then may pay you a visit. Bailiff fees can run into hundreds of pounds.

Exemptions and discounts

Not all drivers have to pay the central London congestion charge.

There are a range of exemptions and discounts available to certain categories of drivers and certain categories of vehicles and individuals.

Drivers of vehicles which emit under 100g/km of CO2 and meetn Euro5 emissions standards qualify for a 100% discount on the Congestion Charge.

If you live in the Congestion Charging Zone you'll qualify for a 90% discount. To register for this, click here.

The following vehicles are automatically free and you don't need to register them:

Two-wheeled motorbikes, side cars, mopeds and bicycles

London licensed minicabs and taxis (licensed with TfL Taxi and Private Hire)

Emergency service vehicles, such as ambulances and fire engines

NHS vehicles that are exempt from road tax

Vehicles used by disabled people that are exempt from vehicle excise duty (road tax) under the 'disabled' class

Vehicles for more than one disabled person (for example Dial-A-Ride) exempt from road tax

There are other exemptions too, and if you believe your vehicle should be included then contact TfL here.

Other categories of exemption include:

HM Coastguard and Port Authorities

Certain operational vehicles used by the London boroughs

The armed forces

Royal Parks Agency

Breakdown organisations

Refunds

If you have paid your congestion charge monthly or annually you can apply for a refund for unused days.

Refunds are calculated from the number of whole charging days from and including the refund date, multiplied by the cost for each of these days, minus a £10 administrative charge. The cost per day will be the value of the charge purchased divided by the number of charging days purchased.

The start date of the refund must be a minimum of seven charging days from the date of receipt of your request by Transport for London.

When you request a refund, you must provide Transport for London with either the original payment receipt/receipt number, or an original of your V5 registration document sent to you by the DVLA.